


Wobbly on Their Feet

by fauxtales



Series: Becoming Human Again [4]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Comfort, Cute, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mentioned Flashbacks, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Recovery, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, Skateboarding, Teasing, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27543517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales
Summary: Doing normal things beyond just surviving is hard. But Lea wants to step up to the challenge, and with Isa by his side, he just might have the courage.
Relationships: Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Becoming Human Again [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890835
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Wobbly on Their Feet

“You need to get in your knees more, Lea!”

“Says the kid flipping all around on a skateboard… Little brat.”

“Doesn’t that make him the one to listen to? He hasn’t fallen every five seconds.”

Lea shoots Isa a glare. It is severely weakened by the way he wobbles in place, unsteady with wheels strapped to his feet and lanky limbs unsure of how to position himself. The way he’s clinging to Isa’s hands also takes any bite out of his annoyance. “Shut up. Skateboards and roller skates are different.”

“Not that different,” Roxas says. He slowly rolls past them, looking perfectly at ease on his skateboard in the middle of the Twilight Town street. He crosses directly in front of the trolley as if it isn’t there, calling “You still need to get into your knees more!” just before it drives between them.

“What does that even mean?” Lea yells back, his frustration starting to get the better of him. Isa smiles pityingly at him and Lea pouts.

Part of their attempts to find some sort of normalcy in life again has included getting out of the house more. This was difficult at first, with years of the need to never be seen by the people of any given world ingrained into them, but with Roxas and Xion’s help, Isa and Lea have slowly been able to venture out more and more. Short shopping trips for groceries became trips to the mall, a quick walk around the block became a picnic in the park, and now, after months of getting used to the new surroundings, Roxas has finally managed to convince Lea to skate.

He’s still too afraid of the skateboard. As a teenager, he probably would have jumped right on, his reckless streak overtaking any of the risks. Now, after dying multiple times and realizing that he’s really not as young as he used to be, Lea would rather not fall off something that could swing up and hit him. At least with roller skates they’re strapped in place and he gets both feet to balance. Or, that was his reasoning anyway. Turns out his feet can still just take off without him, leaving Lea sprawled on his back if he’s not careful.

Luckily, Isa is here to hold him up. It seems that is the story of their life: Lea doing something dangerous, with Isa there to hold his hand through it and call an ambulance if things get too out of hand. Lea is grateful for it, even if at times he does feel like he’s just holding Isa back because of it.

“Why don’t you have death contraptions strapped to your feet?” Lea asks, his frown deepening as he wobbles again and squeezes Isa’s hand. The soft half-laugh that earns from Isa makes him feel warm inside.

“Because I don’t want to break anything,” Isa says. He’s watching Roxas and Xion in the distance, the way they speed past each other. They look like actual teenagers like this. Like the whole evil death cult they all fell victim to never tore them apart at all. “Besides, if I was wobbling all over the place too, I wouldn’t be able to help you stay upright. Is that what you want?”

“No, actually. I guess this is better,” Lea sighs. “I would still like to see you try to balance like this at some point. Watching the great high and mighty Isa wobble all over the place seems like it would be fun.” Lea grins, clearly teasing, and leans in toward Isa. His skates roll with his movement, putting him closer than expected, but that’s fine. He doesn’t mind getting to be closer to his boyfriend, especially if it means he might get a kiss out of it.

“Oh it would, huh?” The tone of Isa’s voice is dangerous. Lea realizes his mistake moments before it bites him in the ass, his eyes widening slightly. Then Isa is stepping away from him, rapidly walking backwards as he drags Lea along. “I think getting to see the great flurry of dancing flames wobbling all over the place is already interesting enough to me. Aren’t you supposed to be graceful?”

“You ass-” Lea clings tightly to Isa’s hands as he’s pulled along, wobbling just as much as Isa says. He has little fear of actually falling at the moment - Isa has a firm enough hold on him to prevent that - but the way his feet swerve all around seems wrong and certainly is far from graceful. If only he could get his feet to go in a straight line…

“Bend your knees!” Lea looks around to find Xion and Roxas watching from a little ways off. Roxas is sitting on his skateboard, his legs sprawled out in front of him as he shifts idly back and forth. Xion is standing beside him, one foot on her skateboard to keep it in place and both hands cupped around her mouth as she yells at Lea. “You just gotta loosen up and bend your knees!”

Easy for her to say! She didn’t actually have to go through the process of learning all of this. Neither did Roxas, for that matter. They both already had the muscle memory of their skill from Sora, with only vague memories of what it was like to actually learn. Hardly a fair advantage, in Lea’s opinion. But they did know what they were doing, so maybe if he actually listens for once things might go well.

Lea takes a breath and lets it out slow. Then he bends his knees, letting his hips drop a bit lower, and he feels his skates stop swerving in every direction. The smile that comes to his face is one of both shock and glee as he realizes that he doesn’t feel like he’s about to fall over now. “I did it!”

“There you go!” Xion cheers. “Now just stop looking at your feet and you’ll be fine!”

“Why does he listen to you but not me?” Roxas pouts, his arms crossing over his chest. Xion laughs.

“Because I’m the more rational one.”

Lea doesn’t hear the rest of their back and forth. He’s too busy staring at the fond smile on Isa’s face as he continues to pull Lea around the courtyard. It’s the calm sort of smile that reminds Lea of how safe they are now, of how normal their lives can be. This moment probably wouldn’t stand out all that much to him, if it weren’t for the fact that it is so drastically different from what his life was like for so many years. A feeling of gratitude and content washes over him, so intense he doesn’t know what to do with it; so he tugs himself forward sharply, pulling his hands from Isa’s to instead throw his arms around Isa’s neck. Isa stumbles back, caught off guard and thrown slightly off balance, but he manages to wrap his arms around Lea’s waist and steady them both easily enough.

“You’re going to knock me over, idiot,” Isa mumbles. Lea just presses his smile into Isa’s hair and takes a deep breath. One of Isa’s hands rubs up and down Lea’s back comfortingly. “You’re even taller with those skates on. Who would have thought it was possible?”

“Not me.” Lea feels something in his throat, emotion that is too much for him to process threatening to overflow. Isa must hear it in his voice, because the hand on Lea’s back falters for a moment. When Isa speaks, he sounds worried.

“What is it? Is something wrong?” Isa’s grip on Lea tightens. He seems to be readying for a fight, as if he could fight off any thoughts that might have hurt Lea. “Did you have a flashback, or…?”

Lea shakes his head. One hand tangles in Isa’s hair, still clinging tightly, but he tries to explain. “No, no… the opposite, actually. I’m just so… happy.” Lea pulls back just enough to look Isa in the face. He looks worried, even moreso when he brings a hand up to wipe the tears from Lea’s cheek, but Lea smiles at him reassuringly. “I’m happy. Being like this with you guys, learning new skills and stuff just for fun… It’s amazing.”

For a long moment, Isa looks almost skeptical. Relearning what emotion does to the human body has certainly taken them a long time and it’s still easy to forget. Tears have always been something they both associated with sadness, so the fact that Lea can’t seem to stop crying now seems difficult for Isa to work through. But then he processes what Lea actually said and smiles.

“Yeah. It really is amazing.” Isa pulls Lea’s hand from his hair so that he can bring it to his lips instead. He presses a kiss to the back of Lea’s hand, mumbling against the skin, “I hope I can give you many more days like this.”

The heat on Lea’s face threatens to catch him on fire, but Lea reigns it in. He’s still not quite used to Isa being, frankly, a bit of a romantic, and it catches him off guard every time. He finds himself smiling regardless, leaning his forehead against Isa’s and giggling.

“As long as I get to spend them with you.” They stay like that for uncountable moments. The rest of the world falls away and Lea thinks that everything will be okay. He tends to get so anxious about what might be coming next, but when they are like this, together and completely wrapped up in each other, it feels like maybe this moment could stretch on into eternity.

“Gross, what are they doing?”

“Would you two stop making out? We’re going to get ice cream!”

But of course, no peace can last. Roxas and Xion cut into the moment, their teasing voices raised obnoxiously just to get a rise out of Lea. Isa sighs as Lea whips his head around to glare back, only wobbling slightly as he does. “Can it, you two! Can’t you see we’re having a moment?”

“Is it like that ‘moment’ you had in the hall outside the bathroom last week?” Roxas asks disparagingly. “Cuz I would rather you not do that in the middle of town. No one else needs to be scarred.”

“You wouldn’t be scarred if you would just announce your presence instead of sneaking around like a dusk,” Lea shoots back. Isa rolls his eyes next to him, used to this teasing back and forth by now. Xion has already started walking toward the ice cream shop, already bored.

“I live in the house too!” Roxas points out. He steps up onto his skateboard, slowly circling around Lea and Isa as he talks. “I shouldn’t have to announce my presence in my own home. You two just need to learn to do that shit in your own rooms.”

“I just want to make sure we all remember,” Isa cuts in, “I did not start that and was in fact ambushed in the hallway.” With that Isa begins walking after Xion, once again dragging Lea behind him. Lea gasps, absolutely scandalized by Isa’s insistence that he is not to blame.

“It’s not as if I forced myself on you!” Roxas widens his eyes at Lea and Lea swings his arm out to try to get the kid in a headlock. Luckily, he misses. “Don’t make that face at me!”

“Wow Lea. You should learn some self control.”

“I have plenty of self control!”

Roxas laughs, speeding after Xion. Isa shakes his head, his own laugh much softer, but definitely genuine. Lea smiles.

They’re still a bit wobbly on their feet, but that’s okay. They’ll get the hang of this “being a person” business soon enough. For now, Lea is just going to enjoy the ride.


End file.
